1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a device and method for displaying Head-Up Display (HUD) information, and more particularly to a device and method for displaying HUD information in which the brightness of the HUD information to be displayed through the head-up display can be adaptively adjusted based on a background brightness on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recently most vehicles have been mounted with a navigation system configured to provide a driver with a road guide to a destination. Also recently a vehicle mounted with a head-up display configured to project desired information on a windscreen of a vehicle is being released, thus allowing a driver to acquire the projected information while the driver sees forward through the windscreen. Further, a study on displaying certain information in the manner of Augmented Reality through a head-up display is being performed.
The Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that shows a virtual image obtained by overlapping three-dimensional virtual objects on an image of the real world that a user sees with the eyes, and the Augmented Reality is also called Mixed Reality (MR) because it shows a single image obtained by mixing an image of the virtual world including the additional information with an image of the real world in real time.
However, a conventional head-up display device has always displayed the Head-Up Display (HUD) information with the same brightness, irrespective of a background brightness on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed, i.e., irrespective of a change of the background brightness according to a change of a driving situation of a vehicle.
For example, a background on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed may appear a road on which there is not a vehicle, a road with shadow formed by a preceding vehicle, or a back side (rear side) of a preceding vehicle when the preceding vehicle is near. Besides, various background situations may be formed on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed, according to driving situations of the vehicle.
By the way, a conventional head-up display device has always displayed the HUD information with the same brightness, irrespective of a background brightness on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed, or, adjusted a brightness of the HUD information through simply detecting a surrounding illumination. That is, when the surroundings was dark (e.g., in cloudy day, in the nighttime, etc), a brightness of the HUD information was decreased, and when the surroundings was bright (e.g., in sunny day, in the daytime, etc), a brightness of the HUD information was increased.
However, a conventional head-up display device has the disadvantages that a brightness of the HUD information can be adjusted irrespective of real driving situations, because a background on a location in which the HUD information is to be displayed may be dark (e.g., when in shadow) although the surroundings are bright practically in a real driving situation of a vehicle, and the background on the location in which the HUD information is to be displayed may be bright (e.g., when receiving the light from the headlights) although the surroundings are dark practically in the real driving situation of the vehicle. That is, a conventional head-up display has the disadvantages that the HUD information can be adjusted very bright, resulting in dazzling a driver to disturb the driving.
The related art of the present invention is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2009-0076242 published on Jul. 13, 2009 and entitled “Head-up display device for vehicle and method for controlling operation thereof”.